Postdoctoral position in digital twins for resilient microgrids

Do you want to build a digital twin of the local power grids of the future – and use it to make a new city district resilient to unforeseen disruptions? We welcome you to apply for a postdoctoral position at Uppsala University.

Electrification and digitalisation are among the largest areas for the future in the conversion to sustainable societies. The Department of Electrical Engineering conducts successful research and education in the areas - renewable energy sources, electric vehicles, industrial IoT, 6G communication and wireless sensor networks as well as research and education within Life Science, smart electronic sensors and medical systems. The Department of Electrical Engineering is an international workplace with around 170 employees that all contribute to important technical energy and health solutions at the Ångström Laboratory.

The position will be at the Division of Electricity at the Department of Electrical Engineering, Uppsala University. Read more about our benefits and what it is like to work at Uppsala University

Project description

The position is part of a collaboration between Uppsala University, KTH – the Royal Institute of Technology and the City of Uppsala on the energy system of Uppsala's south-eastern districts – one of Sweden's largest urban development projects, with 21,500 planned dwellings by 2050. The municipality has decided to proceed with a solar-based microgrid as a testbed to strengthen the district's energy security. They needs research-based evidence for sizing and technical design choices. You will work on a real question, in a live setting, where your results directly inform how a city district is built.

Two postdoctoral researchers are being recruited in parallel to be working together – one at Uppsala University and one at KTH . This position is responsible for the technical modelling of the electricity grid and the digital infrastructure, particular focus on energy system resilience and the capability for island operation. The position at KTH is responsible for the techno-economic evaluation of the district's energy and draws on the modelling results. Part of the working time will be spent at the City of Uppsala , giving direct access to planning material, stakeholders and the questions that are live in implementation. The project is part of the strategic research area STandUP for Energy

The purpose of the project is to strengthen energy security in a growing city district: how the integrated electricity and heat supply can be planned, sized and controlled to maintain its function even during

Duties

The work builds on an existing energy system model developed at KTH – the modelling is therefore not started from scratch.

Duties include

• building models of the microgrid: topology, connection points, solar generation, local storage and the interface to the local distribution grid of the concession holder
• modelling the digital infrastructure – metering, sensors, IoT and communication – and the control architecture linking it to the energy system
• simulating and evaluating alternatives for sizing
• investigating the opportunities of digitalisation and smart control for peak shaving, flexibility, power quality and resilient operation, including automatic restoration and black start after outages
• analysing the microgrid's resilience
• evaluating how design choices – topology, protection, control architecture, battery sizing – affect recovery time
• coupling the electricity system model to the heat system and providing technical input to the techno-economic analyses, together with the postdoctoral researcher at KTH
• contributing to the division's development of a physical test environment, a physical twin, for the microgrid
• publishing results in scientific journals and presenting them at conferences and to the municipality and other societal actors
• contributing to applications for external research funding, nationally and within the EU
• A smaller share of the time (no more than 20 per cent) may be devoted to teaching and supervision.

Qualifications

Qualifications required

PhD degree or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in electrical engineering, energy systems or automatic control. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment. Priority will be given to applicants who have completed their degree no more than three years before the deadline for applications.  Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.

Following qualifications

• experience of modelling and simulation of electric power systems
• knowledge of automatic control applied to energy systems
• good programming skills
• very good ability to express yourself orally and in writing in English

Great importance will be attached to personal suitability

• ability to work independently and to take responsibility for driving a project forward
• good collaborative skills and the ability to communicate research results to actors outside academia

Qualifications desired

• experience of microgrids, DC grids, solar power or battery storage
• experience of digital twins, real-time simulation or hardware-in-the-loop
• experience of digitalisation of energy infrastructure, IoT or data platforms
• experience of resilience analysis, island operation, black start or grid-forming inverters
• experience of sector coupling between electricity and heat
• experience of collaboration with municipalities, public authorities or industry
• knowledge of Swedish

About the employment

Fixed-term employment for 24 months accordance with the central collective agreement. Full-time position. Start date: as agreed. Location: Uppsala.

Application instructions

The application should include 1) a cover letter describing yourself, your research interests and why you are applying for the position, 2) your CV, 3) a copy of your doctoral degree certificate and academic transcripts, as well as a copy of your doctoral thesis, 5) any other documents you wish to refer to, 6) the names and contact details of referees (email address and telephone number), and 7) any publications.

For further information about the position, please contact

Professor Rafael Waters, rafael.waters@angstrom.uu.se, +46 18 471 5807.

You are welcome to submit your application no later than month, day 202x . UFV-PA 2026/2927.